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Bawinanga special administration ends

The Registrar of Indigenous Corporations, Mr Anthony Beven, has today announced the end of an extended special administration of the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation.

Bawinanga was placed under special administration at the end of October 2012 after the directors requested the Registrar’s assistance in helping to resolve the corporation’s financial difficulties.

The corporation is located in Maningrida, approximately 500 kilometres east of Darwin in the Northern Territory, and is one of the largest Aboriginal corporations in Australia. It runs over 44 programs and a number of commercial businesses, of which the largest is the Barlmarrk supermarket.

Bawinanga faced some complex financial issues which the special administrators were able to resolve with the assistance of the Maningrida Progress Association and Bawinanga’s funding agencies. Bawinanga is once again solvent and trading profitably.

New policies and procedures to guide Bawinanga’s day-to-day operations, including tight controls over its financial management were introduced during the special administration. Two independent directors have also been appointed to strengthen the skills on the board.

‘This has been the longest and most challenging special administration in recent years,’ Mr Beven said. ‘The corporation’s problems were entrenched and it was necessary to rebuild the corporation from the ground up. Bawinanga is once again on a sound footing, but it still faces a number of challenges.’

In addition to the two independent directors, a transition manager and human resources manager will be appointed for six months to assist Bawinanga as part of its ongoing recovery.

The Registrar’s office will continue to work with the new directors for the next 12 months and also conduct a governance training workshop for them.

BackgroundFor previous information on this matter, see the Registrar’s media releases at www.oric.gov.au (ORICMR1213-17, ORICMR1213-30, ORICMR1314-02 and ORICMR1314-29).